by Dave Funk | Jul 16, 2024
ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT TRUMP
The attempted assassination of President Trump a few days ago has caused me to push back this week’s planned blog.
In light of this event, I want to raise a few points for you to consider.
The Actual Event
We have all seen the attack from multiple angles of newsreels, cell phone cameras, and interviews. What shocked me personally is that the Trump campaign has been asking to increase the size of his protective detail. That request has been repeatedly denied, along with the denial of any protective services to RFK Jr’s Campaign. Actions speak louder than words. I believe Biden wants his opponents un-protected.
In fact, some Secret Services resources were diverted to Jill Biden’s event. Consequently, Trump’s event was apparently covered by many supplemental agents from different field offices (not Trump’s regular detail). Additionally, his detail had only two SS counter snipers. While this was in accord with agency protocol for a former President, it did not take into account his current status. President Trump was only two days away from again being the nominee of the Republican Party. Trump is not just a former President. He is the only President in modern history to have run for President again, while being the focus of multiple controversies and prosecutions, which would likely make him even more of a target.
As a close friend and Retired US Secret Service Agent friend pointed out to me in an email the evening after the attack:
“If I had been the USSS Director, I’d have made the Trump Detail the same size as PPD or even larger. I’ve not been impressed with [USSS Director] Cheatle. She is just too tight with Biden and Obama, and pushing DEI. Also, recall when Ronald Reagan was shot and how Jerry pushed him into the car, and it rolled within a couple of seconds. The four or five gals around Trump’s car couldn’t decide what to do, and it showed.”
This is a massive failure on the part of the USSS to ensure the safety of a protectee. Yet Hunter Biden has a full detail?
USSS Rules of Engagement
This is similar to the ridiculous Rules of Engagement (ROE) under President Obama when I was in Afghanistan in 2016. We had to be fired upon by known terrorists before we could engage them. Furthermore, the American force was only to equal what we were being fired upon with. Using any weapon larger than a Hellfire missile essentially had to be approved by the White House.
Regarding the President’s USSS detail: under the current ROEs if a suspected sniper is spotted, response teams are sent to check him out. Meanwhile, the Counter Sniper (CS) teams keep him under surveillance through their rifle scopes. In this situation, the CS team did not shoot him in the head until after he had opened fire on President Trump. Clearly, the ROEs need to be changed. If someone shows up aiming a weapon at the President within the range of a CS team, no order should be required for the response team to take action. The CS people should have a green light to take the attacker(s) out, on the spot.
Think of it this way: you’re minding your own business when someone aims a weapon at you. In the United States, that’s sufficient justification to shoot them immediately. You don’t have to wait until you are fired upon, stabbed, or beaten to death with a baseball bat.
Why did the USSS CS Team not engage the shooter immediately, or at least have President Trump moved to safety while the response team investigated?
Operations like the one that the unsuccessful assassin undertook on July 13th require planning: pre-attack scouting, knowing the timing of the event, and luck. They rarely happen in a vacuum. Who helped this shooter? We need to find out — that is, if the FBI can break away from monitoring school board meetings for a few days.
Shocking / Unsurprised?
Professor Johnathan Turley expressed in a July 14, 2024 article on his website how we are surprisingly unsurprised by this attempt.
The assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump left a nation stunned. But the most shocking aspect was that it was not nearly as surprising as it should have been. For months, politicians, the press, and pundits have escalated reckless rhetoric in this campaign on both sides. That includes claims that Trump was set to kill democracy, unleash “death squads” and make homosexuals and reporters “disappear”.
It’s an interesting article and you should read it in its entirety. I vehemently disagree with the good Professor’s belief that those on the left do not want actual violence. Nothing could be further from the truth. As we know in this dangerous world, words have meaning. When someone says they want you dead, you had better believe them. ANTIFA is the militant arm of the current Democratic Party — just like the Ku Klux Klan was for more than a century, before and throughout the 1960s. Our DOJ has not done anything of significance to rein in ANTIFA and its financial supporters in the Blue States. Even Biden said on July 8th, 2024, “We’re done talking about the debate, it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye.”
PRAY FOR AMERICA
As I said in my KCCI-TV interview aired on Sunday, and mentioned at the end of their story, “PRAY FOR AMERICA”.
Please stay Ready at All Times, and help us defend all of Iowa’s rights by donating to IFC-PAC today. Those small recurring monthly donations of $10, $25, or $100 do make a huge difference in our ability to get the message of freedom out there.
Shoot Straight, Speak The Truth, and Never Surrender Our Liberties.
Dave Funk
President
Iowa Firearms Coalition
by Dave Funk | Jul 9, 2024
FINALLY CHEVRON DEFERENCE IS DEAD!
Yes, folks, Chevron Deference is dead! What does that mean? Simply put, it means the Supreme Court told Congress to get back to work. They must stop pawning off their power to unelected Executive Branch bureaucratic agencies. These bureaucrats have become lawmakers that control the entire legal process in “administrative courts”.
Last year I wrote this to explain Chevron Deference:
“About forty years ago the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) created what is now known as the Chevron Deference. As the Brookings Institute explains, this allows the courts to defer to reasonable agency interpretation of ambiguous federal statutes. Possibly the greatest legacy of the current SCOTUS may be one of annihilating the administrative state, by ending the doctrine of Chevron Deference.”
There are lots of very complex explanations out there right now, regarding the impact of striking down Chevron Deference in the Loper Bright Enterprises SCOTUS decision just handed down. Most of these explanations are written by lawyers – and for lawyers. Let me break it all down for you, with the help of The Second Amendment Foundation’s Bill Sack from a piece in AmmoLand;
“Chevron was overturned formally based on the Administrative Procedures Act, which sets out the procedures that federal agencies must follow as well as instructions for the courts to review actions by those agencies. The Supreme Court decided that this deference was unlawful. The Supreme Court said federal courts should start from scratch, rather than showing deference to the alphabet agencies.”
The High Court removed their thumb from the scale.
That last statement is mine. We have seen abuses by federal agencies of the rulemaking process, including by the beloved BATFE. Recent reinterpretations of rules regarding pistol braces, the frame & receiver rule, and the bump stock ban have been, and are being, struck down. This is occurring at various levels of Federal Courts (up to and including SCOTUS), using the Administrative Procedures Act.
Why This Matters
This decision is a major blow to the 100 years of federal overreach that started in the 1920’s. It will take time to fully reverse the consolidation of power in Washington D.C. We all need to pressure our State Legislatures to press the Federal Government back into its only lawful role under the Enumerated Powers Clause in the US Constitution. I’ll give you the short version: Congress only has the authority to do about eighteen things, despite its overstepping its bounds for over 100 years under the guise of “modern views”. That view is that “our betters” in government know what’s best for us.
I am running the world.
Nothing better illustrates that attitude than when Joe Biden made that statement in his ABC Interview on July 5th. I don’t care if it’s Michael Bloomberg, Barack Obama, or George Soros and their minions, we as Americans get to live with the consequences of our own decisions. We should not suffer the consequences of others’ decisions that we have had no say in. After all, how many of “our betters” ever pay a price for their bad decisions?
Joe Biden can barely walk across a stage. He is not running the world.
Please stay Ready at All Times, and help us defend all of Iowa’s rights by donating to IFC-PAC today. Those small recurring monthly donations of $10, $25, or $100 do make a huge difference in our ability to get the message of freedom out there.
Shoot Straight, Speak The Truth, and Never Surrender Our Liberties.
Dave Funk
President
Iowa Firearms Coalition
by Dave Funk | Jul 4, 2024
248 YEARS – WILL AMERICA MAKE IT TO 250?
248 years ago our Declaration of Independence was signed. Will America make it to 250 years? I believe so, but like those men and women who threw off King George, every American needs to stand ready to defend our great nation.
Never forget it was armed civilians who defeated the most powerful army in the world at the time, demanding freedom. These were men who understood the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, had studied world history, and understood that all men were born to be free — not oppressed by a dictator in a far-away land. Today that dictator is our own over-reaching Federal Government and the executive branch of our government. They have spent the last 100 years consolidating power in Washington D.C.
Fortunately we have started to turn that ship around. But it won’t be easy! This July 4th, when you’re watching the fireworks, remember what they really stand for.
To help get you in the spirit of independence, watch this short four-minute history channel video. Refresh your memory about what is at stake.
Please stay Ready at All Times, and help us defend all of Iowa’s rights by joining or renewing your IFC membership here today.
Shoot Straight, Speak The Truth, and Never Surrender Our Liberties.
Dave Funk
President
Iowa Firearms Coalition
by Dave Funk | Jun 26, 2024
BIG SWING AND A MISS!
Last week the Supreme Court handed a big swing and a miss to the Biden/Garland (IN)Justice Department. In the case of the U.S. V Rahimi, the Garland DOJ took a terrible set of facts and tried to gut the Bruen decision, and Garland failed miserably.
With the help of Mark Smith over at The Four Boxes Diner let me explain;
“The terrible set of facts in Rahimi not [facially] 18 USC 922 G8 that says that you cannot touch a firearm, you cannot possess a firearm, if you are subject to a domestic violence restraining order while that restraining order is in effect. The Supreme Court has ruled and held that facially that law is constitutional because there are some instances where that law could beapplied consistent with the Second Amendment.”
A careful reading of the majority opinion shows 2A activists that we can challenge red flag laws, non-violent felons prohibitions, and those not under a domestic violence restraining order under due process claims. In the Rahimi case, Rahimi himself stipulated to his prohibitions, he had not litigated them.
The Buren methodology demands that the government show any restriction to 2A Rights must comply with the historical traditions known at the time of America’s Founding.
Further, an attempt by the Garland DOJ in its Ramihi arguments to infer that only “responsible citizens” have 2A Rights. But that position is an interest-balancing infringement, because who gets to determine what a “responsible citizen” is? You guessed it! It’s the same guys who have opened America’s borders, tracked your social media accounts, and propelled the FBI on Catholic faith practitioners and the parents who object at school board meetings to the radical left’s agenda.
Remember, those anti-gun dangerous quacks want as many people barred for life from having 2A rights.
History teaches us that sometimes in a war, you take a small battlefield loss to win the overall war. Unlike previous major cases that have set the stage on social issues like abortion and same-sex marriage, we in the 2A defending community have not seen a major case like Roe that we have to overturn first. Even liberal SCOTUS Justices have affirmed that Bruen is the law of the land.
Undoubtedly Mark Smith is right. We are still winning and must keep fighting this war to ensure Americans do not ever have to submit to a monopoly on power by our governments. You can watch his video in its entirety on Rahimi here.
Please stay Ready at All Times, and help us defend all of Iowa’s rights by donating to IFC-PAC today.
Shoot Straight, Speak The Truth, and Never Surrender Our Liberties.
Dave Funk
President
Iowa Firearms Coalition
by Dave Funk | Jun 18, 2024
SCOTUS STRIKES AGAIN!
SCOTUS Strikes again! The Supreme Court of the United States has struck down the “bump stock” rule. It was a long time coming. We also saw a Fifth Federal District Court of Appeals Judge demolish the pistol brace rule, because of previous SCOTUS rulings.
Let’s cover the logic between these two rulings and how they affect our Second Amendment rights.
Bump Stocks
In the very emotional time after the Las Vegas attack, the bump stock rule was created. As the left does, by never letting a crisis go to waste, Americans were bullied into an emotional reaction to a violent attack. Fortunately, SCOTUS pointed out the important fact that only Congress has the authority to create law. The BATFE cannot just make things up as they go along, period. As the Second Amendment Foundation explained:
“This is a significant victory for gun owners because it reminds the ATF it simply cannot rewrite federal law,” said SAF Founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “The agency has just been reminded that it can only enforce the law, not usurp the authority of Congress.”
Pistol Braces
When it came to the pistol brace reinterpreted rule redefining millions of pistols as short-barreled rifles, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals slapped down the BATFE for the exact same reasons. The trial judge then followed the Supreme Court’s guidance and declared the rule null and void. As Streiff over at Red State observed:
Today’s decision was a clean sweep for the plaintiffs. Judge O’Connor slammed the BATFE for violating rule-making procedures and exceeding its regulatory authority. He stopped just short of asking the BATFE to provide written evidence that they had a clue or were capable of finding one.
Essentially what the BATFE did in creating both rules was make vague and illegal rules “interpretations”. It also violated the Administrative Procedures Act.
Both the previous ruling limiting the Chevron Deference (hopefully soon to be struck down completely by SCOTUS), and the Bruen decision, are having major impacts in reining in an out-of-control federal administrative state.
Please stay Ready at All Times, and help us defend all of Iowa’s rights by joining or renewing your IFC membership here today.
Shoot Straight, Speak The Truth, and Never Surrender Our Liberties.
Dave Funk
President
Iowa Firearms Coalition
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